The Underground

Earlier this week, former CIA counterintelligence officer turned Soviet spy, Aldrich Ames died in prison whilst serving a life sentence for treason and tax evasion.

Ames, whose father was also a CIA agent, first joined the CIA in 1957, while still in high school, as part of a program that offered temporary jobs to the children of CIA employees. After dropping out of the University of Chicago in his second year, Ames returned to the CIA in 1960, originally as a painter and labourer. By 1969 he was posted to Turkey where he was tasked with recruiting Soviet intelligence officers who would provide counterintelligence to the CIA.

In 1981, Ames was transferred to Mexico City where he began an affair with a Colombian CIA informant, María del Rosario Casas Dupuy, his future wife and also a major influence in his eventual downfall.

Like his father, Ames drank heavily during his career and once committed a serious security violation by leaving a briefcase filled with classified documents on New York City subway carriage.

1985 was a significant year for Ames. After finalising a divorce from his previous wife (another former CIA officer), he married María. Due to serious financial pressure caused by his divorce and his new wife’s heavy spending habits, Ames first began selling CIA secrets to the Soviet’s in April 1985.

His first act of treason was to identify two CIA agents within the KGB who he believed were “essentially valueless”. Ames was paid $50,000 for the information. He later claimed that he had not prepared for more than the initial “con game” to satisfy his immediate indebtedness, but having “crossed a line” he “could never step back”.

Ames soon identified more than ten top-level CIA and FBI sources who were reporting on Soviet activities. Not only did Ames believe that there was “as much money as he could ever use” in betraying these intelligence assets, but their elimination would also reduce the chance of his own espionage being discovered.

Many of the CIA’s network of Soviet spies were arrested and executed at an alarming rate, causing suspicion in the American ranks. However, despite some suspicion against his name, Ames was able to avoid detection as initially much of the blame was placed on other spies such as Edward Lee Howard and Jonathan Pollard.

Ames continued to meet with his Soviet handlers and received anywhere between $20,000 to $50,000 for every meeting, eventually racking up around $2,500,000.

Despite passing two polygraph examinations, one in 1986 and another in 1991, the CIA began an intensive investigation of Ames in March 1993 after becoming suspicious of the extravagant lifestyle he appeared to be living.

Suspicion had first intensified after a member of the CIA’s special “mole hunt team”, Diana Worthen visited Ames’ wife Maria at their home to discuss installing drapes. Having recently had drapes installed herself, Worthen knew they were expensive and was surprised after enquiring which room they would begin with when María laughed and exclaimed that they would have the whole house done at once.

After this slip up from his wife, the CIA soon realised that despite his annual salary of just $60,000, Ames could somehow afford a $540,000 house (paid for in cash), a $50,000 Jaguar XJ-6 luxury car, tailor made suits, servants from the Philippines (whose travel to and from the US was paid for by Ames) and a premium credit card of which the minimum monthly payment exceeded his monthly salary.

After 11 months of almost constant surveillance, Aldrich Ames and his wife were arrested on the 21^st February 1994 and charged with spying for the Soviet Union and Russia as well as tax evasion. Upon his arrest Ames told officers, “You’re making a big mistake! You must have the wrong man!”.

Ames pleaded guilty in court and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. As part of Ames’s plea bargain, his wife received a lesser sentence of five years for tax evasion and conspiracy to commit espionage.

It is estimated that information Ames provided to the Soviets led to the compromise of at least 100 American intelligence operations and the execution of at least ten sources.

Aldrich Ames died on Monday, January 5^th 2026, aged 84. His cause of death is currently unknown.